Killed in Action (KIA). Member of Kline crew in B-24H Carpetbagger, 42-50386, which was shot down by ME 110 south of Paris at 0200hrs. T/O from Harrington, site of crash Les Trois Mares, Oise. MACR 6991.

Units served with

GroupThe 490th Bomb Group, like the 486th and 487th Bomb Groups transitioned from flying B-24 Liberators to B-17 Flying Fortresses, which were used in combat missions from late August 1944. Based at Eye, Suffolk, the Group were focused in the early months...

GroupThe 801st Bomb Group was established as part of the Eighth Air Force in late March 1944 to carry out 'Carpetbagger' missions. These were night missions over France and other parts of occupied Europes to support resistance forces by dropping in agents,...

Aircraft

Associated Place

Military site : airfieldHarrington was built by the 826th and 852nd Engineer Battalions of the US Army in 1943. Completed in 1944, it was the furthest Eighth Air Force combat airfield from the east coast.The Eighth's Special Operations Group was based at the airfield, first...

Events

Event

Location

Date

Born

Boston, Massachusetts

1924

Lived in

East Boston, Boston, MA, USA

1943

19 Seaview Avenue

Enlisted

Boston, MA, USA

6 April 1943

Died

Lagny-le-Sec, France

4 July 1944

The B-24 number 41-29599 named BOOTS took off at 2331 on 4 July 1944 from Harrington, UK to deliver supplies to the French resistance (Operation Peter). The plane was shot down by flak over Lagney le Sec, France, at 2am on the morning of 5 July. The entire crew of ten was killed. MACR 6991. S/Sgt Abate was a machine gunner.

He was serving as the tail gunner on a B-24H which took off from Harrington at 2331hrs, 4 July 1944 on "Operation Peter" His aircraft was shot down by an ME110 night fighter approximately 35 miles south of Paris. It exploded and crashed 0200hrs at a spot known locally as Les Trois Mares, Lagny-Le-Sec(Oise), France. All eight crew members were KIA. Seven are buried in Epinal. His body was found in a corn field about 200 yards south of the crash site badly mutilated and buried with the right wing gunner in one coffin by the Germans in the French Cemetery at Creil.